This "handsome butler" clutched her slightly injured right arm and half-crouched inside the cage, her eyes splitting with fury as she watched innocent children being mercilessly devoured. The scene directly provoked her, making her instinctively want to stand up.
"Hey, calm down!"
"Butler, don't… move recklessly."
Along with two low voices of warning, two slender hands grabbed Konoe Subaru's shoulder and left arm at the same time, stopping her impulsive action.
Hearing this, and knowing that acting rashly would lead to terrible consequences, Konoe clenched her teeth in frustration and crouched back down. She turned to look at her mistress.
A dignified and serious face, fair and beautiful, with long black hair reaching her waist, tied into twin ponytails with a white ribbon—she looked every bit like a refined young lady.
She was Suzutsuki Kanade, the young lady of the Suzutsuki family, and the master of Konoe, who was wearing a butler's outfit and disguising herself as a man.
As for the other person, she was also female—a petite, delicate-looking girl who appeared quite young. She wore a sailor uniform, her body thin and frail from malnutrition. She had snow-white hair and red eyes, with long, messy bangs covering her face.
"Mm… Butler is very strong, but… there's no chance of victory at all, so… don't move recklessly."
The soft, timid loli-like voice immediately pulled Konoe back from her impulsive emotions.
Konoe looked at the small silver-haired girl sitting beside her mistress, her expression complicated. Seeing how young she was, Konoe felt regret over her earlier impulse.
If she had rashly rushed out of the cage, she would definitely have gotten this little girl and her mistress killed.
But the brutal, bloody scene earlier was simply unbearable.
"Konoe, what Shiro said is right. We don't have the ability to resist those monsters. If we act recklessly, our fate…"
Kanade's expression was also grim. She didn't finish her sentence, her gaze drifting toward the wall of flesh and the scene of ghouls chewing flesh and sucking out brains.
Just looking at it once made her nauseous. Her stomach churned violently, and she quickly covered her mouth and turned away.
Seeing her mistress looking unwell, Konoe felt terrible as well. She glanced unwillingly at the hellish, blood-soaked surroundings and said in a low, bitter voice, "Are we really just going to wait for death?"
The silver-haired loli named Shiro didn't dare look around. She curled up inside the cage, her timid red eyes looking at Konoe.
"Those ghouls said this place has already been discovered. There's a chance we could be saved, but… the bigger possibility is that we'll be killed in advance by the ghouls, or become food for that spider devil."
"Konoe… sister, can Shiro ask you for something?"
Faced with the pleading gaze of the small, adorable girl, Konoe fell silent for a moment, then nodded, signaling her to speak.
Shiro bit her lip. Fear and terror were clear in her timid eyes, her voice trembling with tears as she spoke.
"Shiro… is afraid of pain. I don't want to be eaten by ghouls. If it's our turn next… could I ask you, Sister Konoe… to end my life before that?"
The silver-haired girl knew that the cross-dressing female butler before her possessed extraordinary physical strength. She could pry open the iron cage with her bare hands, but breaking out wouldn't allow her to deal with the ghouls or that massive stray devil.
More likely, it would get everyone in this cage killed.
Shiro didn't believe Konoe could defeat the monsters outside, nor could she rescue her. And if Konoe had to choose to sacrifice her own life to save just one person, that person would only be her mistress, Kanade.
So this brilliant, genius little girl could only ask Konoe to end her life before she was devoured by ghouls.
At least that way, she could die with minimal pain.
It was a humble request, but for everyone else in the cage, it was an unattainable luxury.
In front of ghouls and a stray devil, even dying without pain was a luxury.
"I…"
Konoe's expression darkened. Looking at the little girl before her, whose eyes were full of despair as she made such a humble request, her heart felt like it was being torn apart.
She was indeed strong. To protect her mistress, her physical abilities far surpassed those of her peers. She could easily bend open the iron cage with her bare hands, and even facing a group of armed adult men, she had confidence.
Kanade was her reverse scale. Anyone who dared harm the person she protected—she could bring herself to kill them.
But aside from that, Konoe was also kind. Asking her to kill this innocent little girl went against her principles.
She truly couldn't bring herself to do it.
Yet seeing the girl trembling in fear, and recalling the companions who had been devoured earlier, Konoe didn't want to see her die such a horrific death either.
"…Konoe, agree to it."
Suddenly, Kanade placed her hand on the little girl's head, gently stroking it to comfort her. She looked at Konoe, whose face was twisted with pain and conflict, seeaking softly.
Although Shiro's request put the kind-hearted Konoe in an agonizing position, in this environment, dying without pain was a luxury.
When the girl made that request, Kanade herself had briefly wanted to ask Konoe to end her life as well.
But that would be too despicable—leaving Konoe alone by dying painlessly, forcing her to kill her own mistress.
If she was going to die, she would die together with her friend. But at the very least, she wanted this adorable little girl to die with less pain.
"I… I understand, Miss!"
Konoe's tears streamed down her face as she clenched her teeth and agreed.
Heavens, could you please grant us even the smallest miracle?
If it meant my mistress and the others could be saved, I would gladly trade my life for it!
In this hell-like place, she wasn't the only one praying. All the survivors were praying for a miracle, praying that someone would come to save them.
But as they watched their companions die one by one in the mouths of devil and ghouls, the clouds of despair slowly covered the light of hope in their hearts.
Boom!!!
Suddenly, a deafening thunderclap exploded through the underground space, a sound of thunder erupting within this blood-soaked hell.
The people trapped in the cages froze in shock, many of them startled by the thunderous roar.
Bang!!
Another explosion rang out, causing the ghouls preparing to relocate and the stray devil to stiffen in shock.
---
Behind the mask, Raize's face was utterly expressionless—eerily calm. His azure eyes were filled with silent killing intent.
"The CCG personnel above will soon finish clearing out the hostile ghouls, but finding this underground space will take time—enough time for those maggots to relocate."
Raize's figure turned into an untraceable streak of lightning, moving rapidly through the underground passages.
The mental techniques and detection skills he had learned from Sei were perfect for this situation, ensuring he wouldn't lose his way in the complex tunnels.
A detailed three-dimensional model of the underground space formed in his mind, guiding him smoothly toward his destination.
He soon reached it and halted his high-speed movement.
Ahead stood four ghouls guarding the massive gate, each wearing a different style of mask. All four were stunned, unable to understand how a black-clad figure wearing a patterned mask had suddenly appeared in a corridor that had been empty just a moment ago.
Raize's thinking speed was in an accelerated state. In his perception, the moment they froze was like the pause button had been pressed.
He took out a blade from his spatial storage, confirmed that these ghouls were not the ones who had killed his family, and then decapitated all four of them in a single strike.
Through his perception, he could sense numerous life signatures behind the massive iron gate. The strongest one radiated an aura that made him deeply uncomfortable—an existence whose very life disgusted him, something he wanted eradicated immediately.
The holy power he had obtained through his contract with Sei stirred slightly within him.
"A devil…"
Raize's face darkened beneath the mask. His earlier suspicions were correct—the ghouls were indeed connected to other entities.
Now, aside from ghouls, Raize also harbored intense hatred toward devils. His feelings toward the devil race were deeply negative, second only to his desire to see the ghouls completely exterminated.
Crackle!
Raize held the unsheathed blade in one hand while condensing a lightning-aspected energy blast in the other, slamming it directly into the steel gate.
Boom!!
Bang!!
The thunderous explosion echoed without end, the subsequent blast completely overwhelming the sound of thunder itself.
Whoosh!
Wrapped in blue-white lightning, Raize entered his highest acceleration state. Everything around him seemed frozen—his speed exceeded even the shockwaves of the explosion.
Raize charged into the dust cloud created by the blast. In an instant, he broke through the gate's defenses and the smoke and debris. Behind him, the dust he had burst through had yet to fully disperse, while the ghouls blasted away near the gate were still being flung upward by the shockwave.
His eyes widened as the environment and information of this flesh-covered space flooded into his mind for rapid analysis.
The gigantic spider devil.
Ghouls armed with guns stationed at defensive positions.
Ghouls gathered together, feasting.
Ghouls kneeling before the stray devil.
Finally, there were humans locked inside the cages, their faces still frozen in expressions of fear caused by the commotion he had created.
Raize's eyes moved up and down, his cold and crazed gaze searching everywhere. In the end, his violent and deranged stare locked onto six figures scattered in different positions, all dressed in black with black hoods over their heads.
Their clothing and aura matched. Two of them were missing a left arm and a right hand, perfectly matching the intelligence he had obtained from Mado's memories.
---
Only Raize himself heard the sound of his breathing. It was his own voice, the moment he forcibly reined in the madness and violence in his eyes.
Those emotions had not disappeared. Instead, after reaching an extreme, they reversed, plunging Raize into an unnatural calm.
"Ahh…"
A sigh filled with complicated emotions escaped his lips. His calm, unfocused eyes gradually locked onto the six ghouls ahead.
"I found you. Right in front of me. It's you six."
The reversal did not last long. Swelling hatred, joy, rage, madness, and killing intent surged like an infinite tidal wave, carrying Raize's terrifying murderous aura as it erupted outward.
What his heart craved was right in front of him. The ones he wanted to trample were right here. At last, he had found a way to vent the twisted emotions that had accumulated deep inside him.
Boom!
The energy inside his body exploded out of control. A warm, gentle force suddenly appeared within him, trying to soothe the negative emotions in his heart.
But the emotional upheaval erupting from Raize at this moment could not be calmed. Like a perpetual engine, the waves of negative emotions transformed into a tsunami and swept outward. A portion of that warm, sacred golden power was eroded and stripped away, turning into twisted hatred.
"I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you! I found you!!!!!!"
Manic, nonstop words poured from Raize's mouth like a machine gun. Beneath the mask, his expression twisted into madness, the killing intent and insanity in his words swelling without restraint.
"Disgusting, filthy trash gathering together! Who allowed you to live!? Who allowed you to breathe!? Scum like you aren't allowed to breathe the same air as me!!!"
Far away, inside Raize's home, Sei lay on the sofa watching a comedy variety show. Her expression suddenly changed.
"Aize!?"
She sprang up instantly, twisting her body and staring in a certain direction, as if seeing through the walls of the house toward something far away.
As the contractor bound to Raize at the deepest level of soul to soul, Sei naturally sensed his change. The primordial angelic power she had left within Raize through their contract—the primal power of the God of Bible—was faintly showing signs of having its very nature reversed.
Just like angels she had created who fell due to negative emotions, only Raize's case was far more intense. Falling was not something that would come easily to him.
"Damn it, he's run into an enemy with a blood-deep grudge. No wonder such violent negative emotional fluctuations are erupting!"
Sei ground her teeth, her sacred golden eyes radiating holy light as her cute, beautiful face darkened slightly.
In the next moment, her petite figure scattered into countless golden particles of light, disappearing completely from the living room.
In the distant underground space, Raize had completely lost himself. Faced with ghouls that allowed him to vent his hatred and negative emotions, he went utterly out of control.
Clang—
The sword, named Heaven's Sword was drawn. A clear, chilling blade cry echoed as immeasurable slashing light erupted in an instant, accompanied by roaring lightning serpents.
[Sword Drawing Technique: Heavens Wrath!]
Countless lightning blade arcs burst forth around Raize. This was the weapon's secret art of the Heaven's Sword from Meteor Butterfly Sword. In his hands, its power far surpassed anything shown in the game.
[TL: It's originally named Qiankun Sword, but I changed it to Heaven's Blade. The english name of the Qiankun Sword is: Heaven and Earth Sword, but I changed it to Heaven's Sword]
Splurt, splurt, splurt!
Like a gale carrying razor-sharp blades crashing into the ghouls, his lightning-fast figure swept straight through them. In his eyes, the ghouls moved sluggishly. The sword transformed into countless slashes, tearing through flesh as every stationary target was cut cleanly in half.
One slash to behead. One slash to bisect. Five slashes to dismember.
Raize showed no mercy at all to those who displeased him.